We are slowly nearing the sale of my beloved beach house, which I bought with boom real estate profits in 2001. I had wanted an apartment, but my then-Realtor (and now my current boss) convinced me that a two-family house would make much more sense in terms of financial planning flexibility.

"You can live in one half, and you can always rent out the other half," he said. "If you keep the house long enough, that will provide retirement income."

While he was right about that, I don’t think he had any idea how challenging a first-time home purchase would be, even for an experienced buyer of apartments. The roof leaked, the basement flooded, the water heater broke. I had to evict a bad tenant, and found that even a "good" one brought dogs that destroyed the screen door with their clawing.

What’s more, the sale has been a pothole-filled road, and I’m supposed to be good at sales.

In New York City, the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed with money. This is not so in the suburbs, or at least the suburb where my beach house is. There, every little detail of the sale has seemed to involve me taking yet another day off from work. The first three weeks of October have essentially been shot in terms of income because I haven’t been able to string up three straight hours at my desk, let alone with a client.

One example (unfortunately of many): I have spent three entire days dealing with an electrical problem that is essentially a piece of neatening work — $1,500 to eliminate some excess wiring. Fine, extra wiring is probably a fire hazard, and I did tell the buyer that I’d fix it. But dealing with this bit of straightening up has cost three days off of work in a time period riddled with religious holidays. I don’t make a fortune, but I would have gladly paid the buyer $1,500 over and above the cost of the problem just to get my time back. That’s how they do it in the city. On this deal, not an option.

What’s your opinion? Leave your comments below or send a letter to the editor. To contact the writer, click the byline at the top of the story.

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